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Air Force Group Captain Channa Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s Defence Attache in Moscow, has been re-called to Colombo.Instructions went out last week after an official complaint by Sri Lanka new Ambassador in Moscow Dayan Jayetilleke.

Air Marshal Kapila Jayampathi presents an SLAF memento to Sri Lanka Ambassador Dayan Jayatilleke during his visit to Moscow.

The ambassador has said the Air Force officer had allegedly “partitioned” the Embassy premises calling it the “Defence Section” leaving other areas in the diplomatic mission outside it. Dr. Jayetilleke contended that he could not be the head of only one part of the Sri Lanka Embassy. He also alleged that the Defence Attache had imported a vehicle for his use in Moscow and it cost US$ 80,000. This payment, however, has been authorised by Air Force Commander Kapila Jayampathi.
Air Marshal Jayampathi quipped to top officers recently that even he did not have such a good vehicle.

Air Marshal Jayampathi was first told of the actions of the Defence Attache by Ambassador Jayetilleke when he visited Moscow recently. Thereafter, the envoy had also sent in a report to the Foreign Ministry which in turn went to the Defence Ministry. Both have concurred that the Defence Attache, a pilot and the son of an SLAF high ranker, should be asked to return immediately.

MoD sources said yesterday that the Sri Lankan Defence Attache’s name had also been linked to other issues. One is an instance where he had asked Air Force Commander Jayampathi for a VSV (Vishista Seva Vibushana) award but it had been turned down. However, notwithstanding this, a senior official in the Presidential Secretariat had written to the Defence Attache in Moscow that the award had been granted. This official has since been moved out of the Secretariat.

Another has been the allegation – denied by the Defence Attaché – that he regularly visited a compound of the United States diplomatic mission in Moscow and mingled with military personnel there. A request by the Defence Attaché for an extension of his service has been turned down.

Sri Lanka’s new Defence Attaché in Moscow will be Group Captain Uditha Piyasena from the Technical Engineering Division of the Air Force.

President’s Qatar pictures: CID questions official close to top minister
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives have taken in for questioning an official closely associated with a loquacious minister.
The man had been on President Maithripala Sirisena’s entourage to the UN General Assembly sessions in New York, though not formally in the official list. He had been taken along by the minister concerned.

The move came after President Sirisena was infuriated seeing pictures of him and members of his family, taken at the Hamad International Airport in Qatar’s capital of Doha in a website banned in Sri Lanka. They were all en-route to New York. He had asked the Sri Lanka Ambassador in Qatar, a former school teacher and property businessman, to investigate who took the pictures at the VIP Lounge. President Sirisena had also directed the CID to conduct an investigation.

Government sources said Ambassador A.S.P. Liyanage, a close associate of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and who has his own Labour Party had personally reviewed surveillance video at the airport and identified the official taking photographs from the entrance to the Lounge. The local official had stayed behind in the US after the UNGA sessions and returned to Colombo only this week.

This is whilst another English language website reported with pictures Ambassador Liyanage receiving the sons of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Hamad International Airport. Both Yoshitha and Rohitha had been part of a rugger team that arrived in Doha to play matches. One photograph showed an embassy employee pushing the trolley with the baggage of the Rajapaksa siblings.

CID detectives who were questioning him are trying to ascertain whether the photographs, were still in his possession and how he reportedly transmitted them.
These sources also said that the official in question had previously worked for another judicious minister who was forced to give up his portfolio. He was since re-instated but the official had then been found to have leaked information to the same website. He had since been removed.

Lanka’s defence deal with Russia threatened by US sanctions, but India goes ahead
Government’s efforts to make military procurements from Russia have hit another serious snag — the sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States.
Among two major deals negotiated with Russia’s Rosboronoexport are the purchase of a Gephard 5.1 Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV), Armoured Personnel Carriers (BTRs) and Mi 17 helicopters. They were to come from the state own company Rosboronoexport.

However, this company and other Russian companies dealing in military hardware are under sanctions by the US. On August 2, President Donald Trump signed the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act of 2017. The sanctions follow the US demand that Russia returns the control of the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine. Yet in Colombo, Some Defence Ministry officials are keen to get the deal through and argue Sri Lanka could obtain exemption from the US since relations are now close. However, diplomatic sources discount this claim.

As reported earlier in the Sunday Times, the Russian Government has extended credit to the tune of US$ 135 million (Rs.20 billion) exclusive of 15 percent of Sri Lanka Government’s contribution. The total ship value including on board spares and ammunition is placed at US$ 158.5 million (Rs.24 billion). This is besides a further Government commitment of US$ 7 million (Rs.1 billion) for training of Navy personnel.

The Government is to pay a four percent interest on the credit extended by the Russian Government. Payment is to be semi-annual in equal instalments within ten years including a grace period of five years.

While Sri Lanka is facing problems, in New Delhi on Friday, Russia and India’s leaders announced a raft of deals worth billions of dollars including for a S-400 surface-to-air missile defence system, as New Delhi walks a tightrope between Moscow and Washington with a wary eye on China. India’s decision to purchase the S-400, flies in the face of the US imposing sanctions on countries buying Russian military hardware, as happened with China last month.

All-powerful Press Council at “Kasal” Street
The state-backed Sri Lanka Press Council (SLPC) officials are made so powerful by the law that they can order corrections for erroneous publication of reports and even send to jail those who caused violations. However, since being established in 1973, the SLPC has so far not chosen to send a scribe within the confines of a prison wall though journalists have been summoned and put in a temporary cell in Magistrate’s Courts.

Recently in a complaint against the Sunday Times, it was pointed out by the newspaper’s Counsel that the Council had been illegally constituted. The then Press Council obtained legal advice and was told that the newspaper was right. The Council didn’t have what it takes to admit it to the newspaper. Then the Councillors got the President to re-constitute the SLPC, but this would surely not be the end of the story.

If one is to go by SLPC’s own address on its website, those at the statutory body set up to uphold “media freedom” do not know where they have located themselves. The website gives the Council’s address as 155/15 Kasal Street. In Sinhala Kasal means dirt and the Colombo Municipal Council has no record of a Kasal or Dirt Street, though it might be a Freudian slip. The recently concluded international conference to mark the 20th anniversary of the Colombo Declaration on Media Freedom and Social Responsibility called for the repeal of the Press Council Act.

As far as we know, the Council is at Castle Street. That is not all. It says the location is Colombo 7 – 8. Are they still not sure in which city zone they sit?
Little wonder, an office assistant who came to the main entrance of the Kanatte Cemetery (located not far from Castle Street) and asked directions from an employee there how he could get to ‘Kusal’ Street, “koheda Kusal Pedesa?”or where is Kusal Place? The employee heard it wrong and replied: “Thavama Avey nehe,” or they have not come yet. He thought that the man was asking about funeral procession that was being awaited.